Every business wants to appear at the top of Google search results. You work to make your website better. You create fresh, original content, optimize it, pay attention to social media, and try to add something new to the conversation. You've re-written the keywords on your page, your Meta Data and page descriptions. You've done everything the White Hat guides tell you to do.
Yet month after month, you see the same company at the top of the Google search results page (SERP) and you know they haven’t done squat on their site for months, maybe years. You check their backlinks and the have very few. Their site doesn't appear to be optimized for search. While you listen to people like me who go on and on about the importance of posting fresh content, you're just not seeing the results.
Neil Patel recently addressed this frustrating scenario many of us live with. Here are my thoughts on his article, which I recommend you read.
Google Search Results Prefers Age Over Beauty
There aren’t many places anymore where age is a true benefit, but Google search rankings are one of them.
Older sites have been around longer and as Patel explains, they have higher click-through rates (Google looks at the number of clicks you receive from the total number of people searching for that particular phrase you rank for.) than their newer competitors. Higher click-through rates bring higher scores in the Google algorithm. The answer here might just be to keep doing what you're doing, have a little faith and be patient. I know that's hard but click-through rates are only one tiny part of the equation.
So how do you get around this these guys who’ve been hanging out on Page One forever?
You keep doing what I say! You write great, high-quality content, optimize it, put in lots of links, keep your site up to date and….wait for your score to reflect your hard work. It will happen.
Don’t try any funny stuff like getting your friends to go on your site several times a day. Google will see short visits, hits to the back button, and other evidence that visitors got there by accident or just didn’t see anything compelling to make them stay, You need to keep your Bounce Rate low. If Google sends 1,000 people to your website and each of those 1,000 people immediately hit the back button, it sends a message to Google your web page isn’t relevant to the searcher's search.
One thing that may help you, though, is buying an ad. Ads that get good placement because they match searches (and the keywords you are using on your website) well are going to get more clicks. Contact me if you want to discuss setting up an AdWords campaign.
Backlinks, Crosslinks, and Competition Rank High
Google also likes to see historic evidence that a site is well-respected. Backlinks and crosslinks on older sites tell Google the site has been visited more often. So a site that hasn’t been optimized since Hummingbird but has high-quality backlinks over the years will do well when their links are highly relevant. This is because Google equates authoritive and relevant backlinks with credibility. They are trying to make their search results credible and relevant to the searcher's search.
Google's search bots are able to look at a web page that is links to your website and analyze the text around the link as well as the text on the page. This helps Google determine if the link is relevant to your website.
You can play this game, too, by working to encourage readership from .org and .gov sites, which Google respects over .coms. Work on your outreach to these places through social media. Follow these blogs and share their posts in an attempt to get some attention. When you have time, comment on a post on a .org or a .gov site to bring attention to your own website or blog.
In addition, clicks on cross-links that take the reader to other pages on your website tell Google people find your site useful. Back in the day before menus got long and complicated, people relied more on these cross-links. No doubt the old-timers used them and never dusted them off. I recommend that you strive to put in at least one on each page, so long as it’s relevant.
Finally, there’s competition. Once a company reaches the top spo on the SERPt, it is difficult to dislodge it. It’s the first item searchers will see. Companies that invested a few bucks in Adwords and ran successful campaigns own the most competitive keywords and appear higher on the Google search results page. It's just human nature to click on the first couple of results we see,
Great Content Will Take You Higher!
I can say that sweating out organic content does work. Remember, Google is reviewing the content on your website and comparing it to your competitors' websites. So if you have higher quality content than all of your competitors, you are likely to eventually appear higher on the Google search results page.
A colleague of mine recently rewrote an entire website for a small catering business in a decent sized city, with no discernable extra efforts on social media or ad buys. After a month, the business ranked on the lower half of Page One, up from Page Four.
Three competitors have ads listed at the top of Page One, including one whose site rarely includes new content. If she can persuade the owner to take social media a lot more seriously and maybe give AdWords another try, he just might get closer to the top of that coveted first page. You can do this too.
Focusing on your competition is important, but don't lose sleep over it. I continue to believe companies with the best products or services, who continue to pump out high quality content often win the battle to the top of the SERP.
Do you have a tip or a trick for a getting your website to rank higher in search results that you're willing to share in the comments below?
